Movie Reviews – April 2008

Here is what we saw:

Here are my reviews:

The Darjeeling Limited

Three excentric, estranged brothers meet up and travel across India on a train called the Darjeeling Limited. They are on a quest, unrevealed at first, and hope the journey will heal old wounds and rivalries. Owen Wilson is the oldest brother and except for a few flashbacks, acts through the entire movie with his face all done up in bandages. Shot in India, you just don’t see movies like this. It is so quirky and strange that you can’t help but love it. Be sure to watch the bonus materials about the making of the movie.
Netflix – 4 stars

Kon Tiki

In the late 1940’s Thor Heyerdahl theorized that Polynesia was settled by Indians from South America, not from eastern Asia. He was generally ridiculed at the time. Recent DNA analysis has proven him wrong, but almost 60 years ago none of those tools existed. The chief argument was that primative peoples couldn’t make long ocean voyages with the unsophisticated watercraft available to them. Heyerdahl knew that the Indians on the west coast of South America had balsa rafts. There were historical accounts. He built one and called it Kon Tiki. Then he sailed it from Peru to the west almost 4300 miles and arrived at Raroia 101 days later. At the very least, he proved it could have been done in ancient times. This movie documents that voyage. The film won an Oscar for best documentary in 1951. I first became familiar with Thor Heyerdahl with his book Aku Aku about Easter Island and the gigantic stone statues there. Later, we got a bunch of books from my uncle when he moved to Oregon and the Kon Tiki book was among them. I read it eagerly. Still later, he undertook the Ra Expeditions and I followed them with interest too. Personally, I think that most modern people underestimate the capabilities of those ancient peoples and even if Polynesia wasn’t settled by South American Indians, I think there is still a possibility that there was some interaction.
Netflix – 3 stars

L4yer Cake

Lance recommended this movie to me when we were talking about Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. An unassuming drug trafficker who is just ready to retire gets drawn in to a couple of activities that he wants no part of. His “boss” wants him to find the daughter of a friend who has run off from a drug rehab program. Also, there is a stolen shipment of ecstasy floating around and his boss wants him to broker the deal. Things are not all what they seem. The boss’s friend doesn’t really want his daughter found, especially by our hero’s boss. And the ecstasy was stolen from some extremists so anyone involved with it is in danger of being killed. Like a layer cake, there are lots of levels and plot twists to this movie. Again, on Lance’s recommendation, you should watch it with the English subtitles on. A high 3.
Netflix – 3 stars

Tales of Rat Fink

This film documents the career of 60s icon Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Roth was an innovator and according to the film was the one who originated flames on hot rods, pictures on T-shirts, Fiberglas custom cars, and of course Rat Fink. The movie was put together in a cheesy way but there can’t have been too many images of Roth made on high quality movie footage. It is an assemblage of animated stills, home movies, animation, and some modern live-action. John Goodman provided the voice for Big Daddy Roth and a variety of other stars did the voices of various hot rods that Roth had an effect on. Big daddy was kind of an idol of mine and despite how amateurishly this film was done, it was a delight to watch.
Netflix – 3 stars

The Assassination of Jesse James

Jesse James and his band of outlaws robbed stagecoaches, trains, and banks. They showed one train robbery, but other than that, the show was about the personal interactions of the members of his gang. Of particular interest, of course, were the dealings he had with Robert Ford. Ford finally kills James about two thirds of the way through the movie and is himself killed at the very end. This movie was a very somber affair and it was another one that we had to turn on the English subtitles to be able to understand. Casey Affleck again mumbles his way through an entire movie. The others just talked with plain old, hard to understand Southern accents. Many scenes were shot in barren winter landscapes. Even when the sun was shining you had the feeling that everything was bleak. All through this movie a person got hints of the TV drama Deadwood, little bits of music, et cetera. If it didn’t show such an interesting time in history, I might have rated this movie a little lower.
Netflix – 3 stars

One Night with the King

This movie told the biblical story of Esther who lived in Persia. She was an orphan and lived with her uncle who was a scribe at the palace. Famed for her beauty she is selected from all the land to become the queen of the Emperor. The King’s adviser believes that all Jews must be eliminated and their property seized. At great personal risk Esther convinces the king not to do that. I have to admit that I’m not really right up there with my Bible stories. So I got out the trusty old King James and had a quick read. It’s only about six pages. They got all the major points right but did a lot of fiddling with the back story in the movie. They were able to come up with a reason why the adviser hated Jews so much but the Bible itself doesn’t really say anything about that. All in all it was an interesting tale.
Netflix – 3 stars

The Seeker: The Dark is Rising

The youngest of six brothers finds himself in danger. He is being pursued by a nasty, somewhat medieval, character on horseback and has no idea why he’s being chased. The people at the local manor house fill him in. He is the seventh son of the seventh son and a paladin for good. But when he says, “Hey, I’m only the sixth son,” they tell that he had an older twin brother who was born just minutes before him and disappeared when he was a baby. He is given a quest to retrieve six objects that can be hidden anywhere in time, and is also given the capability of traveling there. He messes around for a while and doesn’t get the objects as quickly as he could because, don’t you know, that there is a deadline that all of these objects must be collected by. If he doesn’t succeed the dark character who is pursuing him will have an an unlimited power for evil. Of course, he gets the next-to-last one with seconds to spare and the final object is himself. With his success he is able to find and return his lost brother. Normally I like this kind of the movie and this one had good actors in it, but something was just missing. It didn’t seem very well organized. Low three.
Netflix – 3 stars

An Inconvenient Truth

This movie was Al Gore’s slideshow. He uses a high-tech audiovisual lecture to make his point about global warming. Between segments of the lecture he spends a little time reminiscing and reflecting on what he is teaching you. He makes an impressive case and we wonder if everyone will wake up soon enough.
Netflix – 3 stars

Memoirs of a Geisha

This movie is set just before World War II. It starts with two sisters being sold to geisha houses in prewar Japan. Our heroine is pretty but her sister is a little plain. She is accepted at the best geisha house but her sister gets sent along to the next one. It is a long time before they see one another again. They plan to escape but circumstances conspire against them and only the sister gets away. Our sister has been receiving geisha training but as a punishment for trying to escape they turn her into a slave. While doing her duties she runs into a man who treats her kindly and she falls in love with him. She is only about 12 at the time, but hopes that one day she can be with him. Another famous geisha from a different house sees the girl and recognizes her potential. She makes a wager with the woman who owns the geisha house that if the girl can earn back her debt within six months of becoming a journeyman geisha, she will have her freedom. She offers to pay all expenses up to that point. Also in the plot are her friend and the evil geisha superstar of the house who has it in for the girl. She learns her lessons well and is granted her freedom and inherits the geisha house into the bargain. World War II comes and puts an end to just about everything. The girls have to go into the country to be safe and at the end of the war, she is called upon once again to be a geisha and to influence the American general of the occupying forces. This was a pretty good movie. The look of it was just great. You had the feeling that this is exactly what prewar Japan looked like.
Netflix – 3 stars

The Nativity Story

This is the second biblical movie this month. It tells the story of Jesus’s birth of coarse. Most people are familiar with the story line. Two things made the movie a little more interesting than would normally have been the case. One, they deal with Mary’s unwed pregnancy which puts her in jeopardy to some degree. Maybe I didn’t clue into it when I first heard the story as a child. I must say I have not reviewed it in depth since I’ve been an adult. And second, the Magi, or as I like to call them, the three wise guys, interacting with one another is fairly funny. Does anyone know what Joseph, Mary and Jesus did when they were in Egypt?
Netflix – 3 stars